Catcher’s Blog

I wasn’t planning on posting today, but DOB’s blog changed my mind. First, we’ll look at some quotes that I’m referring to:

“I’m finally off the hook,” he said, smiling as he ate a postgame sandwich in a clubhouse that was as noisy as a frat party when compared to the morgue atmosphere of the previous week. People were smiling, laughing, after the pins-and-needles atmosphere we felt entering the clubhouse after recent losses.

Most of you know just what Johnson was referring to — his dropped popup with two out in the ninth inning a week earlier against Philadelphia seven nights earlier, when the Braves had a game in the bag … until it squirted out of his glove.

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Johnson hadn’t stopped thinking of that popup since. But late last night, he could finally smile about it, since some of the mounting pressure of losing for a solid week after his error had finally been released.

“I told my wife [earlier Friday], if this [losing] goes on much longer, when we walk by fans it’s not going to be, ‘Hey, there’s Kelly Johnson, the Braves second baseman,’” he said. “It’s going to be, ‘There’s Kelly Johnson, the guy who dropped the ball and lost us the season.’”
If the Braves don’t start playing like they did last night a lot more frequently, that dropped ball might still be the moment fans point to first, fairly or not, as the point where the season was lost.

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No, that dropped popup is a moment that sticks out, not just because the Braves were one out from a series-opening win against the Phillies, but because they seemed to be in a daze the rest of the weekend and much of the Chicago series.

And, of course, because a dropped popup with two out in the ninth tends to stand out in the memory bank more than so-and-so failing to deliver with bases loaded with none out, or with one out, or with two outs….”

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We’ve been told before by KJ himself, that KJ is very hard on himself. I’m sure that’s all he’s thought about until last night after they won and still probably will for the remainder of the season. But even though no one but himself could be to blame for dropping the ball, there is other people at fault for that loss and it’s not KJ’s fault we went on a 6-game losing streak. KJ can only control what KJ does and even then sometimes he can’t control that since he’s merely human. I know I’m a fan of KJ and I’m not saying this because of that love as a fan I have for him, I’m saying it because some fans automatically turn on players when they start costing the team wins. Take Frenchy for example, people wanted his head, along with KJ’s, on a silver platter to feed to the wolves when he continued on his major slump.

Fans that decide to pack it up this early in the season, after a few mishaps and tough losses, shouldn’t be fans at all. Injuries are a mere excuse, but you can’t get past them when it’s half of your starting lineup/payroll on the DL; they’re going to start hurting you eventually. But with that, fans should be behind the team that much more to help pick them up. If the going gets tough and the tough gives up, you’re not going to get very far no matter what you do. We as fans need to keep supporting this team, no matter what they do. We need to show them that fans are not just there to see them win, we need to show them that we’re there for when they win, lose, or whatever. True fans never give up on their team, no matter how bad things get. I’m not giving up on this team and true fans won’t either.